Total of 12 Indian Americans are now elected members.
IANS
Seven out of eight Indian American candidates, who ran for local elections in Lexington city, Kentucky, on Tuesday, have won.
With this, now there are a total of 12 Indian Americans elected members of the Lexington Town Meeting, India New England News reported on Wednesday.
“This movement is historic. Great result despite heavy turnout because of presidential elections which tends to favor known contestants and incumbents,” Narain Bhatia, a long-time Lexington resident and community activist, said.
The winners of Lexington elections include Sharmila Mudgal from Precinct-3 for one year term, Anoop Garg from Precinct-4 gets three year term, Pam Joshi and Rita Pandey gets three year term each from Precinct-9 and Precinct-5, respectively.
Anil Ahuja from Precinct-5, Vikas Kinger from Precinct-7 and Nirmala Garimella from Precinct-8 got one year term each.
The only Indian American candidate to lose in the election was Hema Bhatt in Precinct-9.
“Hema Bhatt lost but got 375 votes and lost by just 36 votes while beating Scott Burson, a long time town meeting member and former School Committee member by 76 votes,” Bhatia said.
In addition to the winners in Tuesday’s elections, Indian Americans have five current Town Meeting members whose term is not over making a total of 12.
These sitting members are: Narain Bhatia, Ravish Kumar, Sanjay Padaki, Dinesh Patel and Syed Rizvi.
2 Comments
You guys have no clue what this is all about. This is what happenes when you guys publish some news without looking at the facts
First of all this is from Lexington MA and not Lexington KY.
Also So called Town Meeting member is no big deal
It is a joke that some local media folks are making a big deal about the election of a Town Meeting member. But in reality folks, in many towns in Massachusetts every citizen is a Town Meeting Member. So it is really no big deal. They are one of the 170 people saying Yea or Nay on the articles presented in the town meeting and has no other power.Yes- In a OPEN MEETING towns, all residents at TOWN MEETING MEMBERS.
What is Town Meeting member ?
A representative town meeting is a form of municipal legislature particularly common in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont.
Representative Town Meetings function largely the same as an Open Town Meeting, except that not all registered voters can participate or vote. The townspeople instead elect town meeting members by precinct to represent them and to vote on the issues for them, much like a U.S. Representative votes on behalf of his or her constituents in Congress
Massachusetts towns having at least 6,000 residents may adopt a Representative Town Meeting system. This may be done through acceptance of an act of the legislature, by petitioning the General Court to enact a special legislation which applies solely to the individual town, or by using the Home Rule Charter process. Under the Special Act or charter change processes, even communities of less than 6,000 may adopt a representative town meeting if the residents vote to accept the Special Act or approve a charter-change process. Framingham, the largest town in the state by population, has 216 representatives in Town Meeting, twelve from each precinct.
Not all towns in Massachusetts have Town meeting member system. For example for towns such as Medway, Acton, Westford etc. any town resident can attend the town meeting which is called OPEN TOWN MEETING , where as towns such as Framingham and Lexington only elected town meeting member can attend town meetings and vote on various articles.( REPRESENTATIVE TOWN MEETING)
Congratulations to 7 Indian Americans from Lexington,MA who have been elected as Town Meeting Members .
What is Town Meeting member ?
A representative town meeting is a form of municipal legislature particularly common in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont.
Representative Town Meetings function largely the same as an Open Town Meeting, except that not all registered voters can participate or vote. The townspeople instead elect town meeting members by precinct to represent them and to vote on the issues for them, much like a U.S. Representative votes on behalf of his or her constituents in Congress
Massachusetts towns having at least 6,000 residents may adopt a Representative Town Meeting system. This may be done through acceptance of an act of the legislature, by petitioning the General Court to enact a special legislation which applies solely to the individual town, or by using the Home Rule Charter process. Under the Special Act or charter change processes, even communities of less than 6,000 may adopt a representative town meeting if the residents vote to accept the Special Act or approve a charter-change process. Framingham, the largest town in the state by population, has 216 representatives in Town Meeting, twelve from each precinct.
Not all towns in Massachusetts have Town meeting member system. For example for towns such as Medway, Acton, Westford etc. any town resident can attend the town meeting which is called OPEN TOWN MEETING , where as towns such as Framingham and Lexington only elected town meeting member can attend town meetings and vote on various articles.( REPRESENTATIVE TOWN MEETING)